A Wild Way to Start the Day....

Yesterday, I let everybody off the hook easy. Today, we're going to ramp it up a bit. In fact, we're going to get everyone's juices flowing by starting the day with a wild cage ride! 

The beautiful hill town of Gubbio has had these "birdcage" rides forever. They are so fun! There are two circles painted on the platform. One person stands in each. As the cage approaches the first circle, the attendant swings open the door, and the first person hops on while the cage is still moving. Then the second person hops aboard, the attendant slams the door shut, and you're off!

The ride takes you up the mountain side for spectacular views over Gubbio and the surrounding countryside. The trip is quite vertical, and today, it's quite windy. But my intrepid crew is ready for the adventure!

Ok, we're all on board. Up, up and away we go!

The ride up is exciting and exhilirating and the views are spectacular!

The view on our way up.

The view of the historic center of Gubbio.

We're about to arrive at our destination at the top of the mountian.

It's a blustery day, so we just take time for a few photos and a look about before heading back down.

Back down to earth from our ride, our driver drops us off in the historic center of Gubbio. The group now has a little free time to walk around and explore this beautiful hill town before we meet up for lunch.

The troops begin to gather....it must be time to eat! We are trying out a new lunch spot today, and we are so glad we did!

Lunch was outstanding and the service was really grand. We fell in love with our waiter Marcello who was just such a nice man. And to top it off, the owner of the restaurant himself, Ulise, came out and spent a lot of time talking to us about truffles. He was so passionate about his ingredients, his food, his restaurant....really lovely. And...the food was delicious!

Gubbio has been so fun and treated us well, but it is time to move on. We're on our way to the Eurochocolate Festival (Yes, can you believe there even is such a thing?!) in Perugia, but we have a quick stop to make on the way. 

We'll be stopping at Frantoio Trampolini, an olive oil mill where we will have a chance to see how the oil is made, as well as have a taste. Antonio Trampolini, the patriarch of the family shows us an old mill stone, explaining how the olives used to be crushed in years past. Then he takes us inside to see the modern equipment used today.

And now it's time to taste the oil. First we are offered a taste of the oil from last year's harvest. It's delicious, but then Antonio gives us some great news. Though it is early, just yesterday, they crushed a small amount of olives. So......we are so lucky to be able to test the freshly pressed oil! You can see (and taste!) the difference between last year's oil and the new oil. Delicious!

Luckily, we arrive early....on the first day of the festival, really just as it is getting underway. I have been to this festival in years past when it has been so crowded as to be nearly unbearable. But this evening is perfect...we go our separate ways, strolling, ogling the chocolate, tasting the chocolate, buying the chocolate......

After lots of purchases and hugs goodbye, we pile back into the van and make the very short trip to Perugia for the EuroChocolate Festival.

We're headed back to Spello now to end our day with a lovely dinner and more fantastic wine from Umbria. So I leave you with this final photo of the day, taken from the top of Perugia looking back over the countryside as the sun is going down.

We've had a long and very productive day. The back of the van is filled with olive oil, chocolate and other purchases made during the day. Ahhh.....Italy. Sigh.